Telecomhttp://www.adweek.com/taxonomy/term/2165/all
enAd of the Day: Virgin Mobile's New Campaign Is the Ultimate Rickrollhttp://www.adweek.com/news/advertising-branding/ad-day-virgin-mobiles-new-campaign-ultimate-rickroll-163504
Tim Nudd<img src="http://www.adweek.com/files/imagecache/node-detail/news_article/virgin-mobile-rick-astley-hed-2015.png"> <p>
The sudden appearance of Rick Astley usually means you&#39;ve been duped. But 180LA and Virgin Mobile now want it to communicate the opposite.</p>
<p>
A new campaign for the wireless carrier depicts a family who are constantly fighting over the wireless data they have to share. In a TV spot called &quot;Do It for the Data,&quot; they are all seen doing absurd favors for each other&mdash;in exchange for more data.</p>
<p>
The spot ends with a particularly absurd favor involving the &quot;Never Gonna Give You Up&quot; singer himself. Consider yourself <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rickrolling" target="_blank">Rickrolled</a>&mdash;hopefully in a good way.<br />
<br />
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="367" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/Ia5irCPT7oI?rel=0" width="652"></iframe><br />
<br />
Virgin Mobile&#39;s Data Done Right plans, available at Walmart, aim to change that by dividing up specific amounts of data so everyone gets their fair share. The TV spot begins airing this week of March 16 on cable channels including ABC Family, the Food Network, TBS, TLC, USA and others.</p>
<p>
There are two online spot, as well. See them below.</p>
<p>
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="367" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/Yc32LYGdti8?rel=0" width="652"></iframe></p>
<p>
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="367" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/3JgXe2ZLvOc?rel=0" width="652"></iframe></p>
<p>
<strong>CREDITS</strong><br />
Client: Virgin Mobile<br />
Director, Sprint Prepaid Group: Peiti Feng<br />
Sr Manager, Virgin Mobile Brand: Ryan Rimsnider<br />
Creative Director, Sprint Prepaid Group: Nick Holt</p>
<p>
Campaign: Do It For The Data</p>
<p>
Agency: 180LA<br />
Managing Partner, CCO: William Gelner<br />
Creative Directors: Mike Bokman and Jason Rappaport<br />
Copywriter: Chris Elzinga<br />
Art Director: Marcus Cross<br />
Head of Account Management: Chad Bettor<br />
Associate Account Director: Paul Kinsella<br />
Account Coordinator: Eric Reilly<br />
Head of Production: Natasha Wellesley<br />
Senior Producer: Lindsey Wood</p>
<p>
Production Co: B Reel<br />
Director: Steven Tsuchida<br />
DP: James Gardner<br />
Founding Partner / EP: Pelle Nilsson<br />
Managing Director / Executive Producer: Michael McQuhae</p>
<p>
EP: Fran McGivern<br />
Producer: Darrin Ball</p>
<p>
Production Supervisor: Tai Scott<br />
Shoot Location: Vancouver, BC<br />
Shoot Date: 2/11/15</p>
<p>
Editorial Company: Hutch Co<br />
Editor: Jim Hutchins<br />
EP: Jane Hutchins</p>
<p>
Online Finishing:<br />
Colorist: Adam Scott / The Mill<br />
Online / Finishing: The Mill<br />
Sound Design / Mix: Rommel Molina / Barking Owl Sound</p>
Advertising & Branding180Ad of The DayTelecomVirgin MobileCreativeTim NuddMon, 16 Mar 2015 16:57:07 +0000163504 at http://www.adweek.comFCC Chairman Tom Wheeler: The Internet Now Has the Referee It Needshttp://www.adweek.com/news/technology/fcc-chairman-tom-wheeler-internet-now-has-referee-it-needs-163248
Christopher Heine<img src="http://www.adweek.com/files/imagecache/node-detail/news_article/tom-wheeler-hed-2015.jpg"> <p>
In his early evening keynote appearance at <a href="http://www.adweek.com/news/technology/heres-why-marketers-are-flocking-mobile-world-congress-spain-163230" target="_blank">Mobile World Congress</a> on Tuesday, Federal Communications Commission chairman Tom Wheeler essentially continued his victory lap five days after his agency <a href="http://www.adweek.com/news/technology/winners-and-losers-todays-fcc-ruling-net-neutrality-163169" target="_blank">voted 3-2 to enforce net neutrality</a>.&nbsp;</p>
<p>
&quot;You call it a close vote&mdash;I call it we had 50 percent more votes than they did,&quot; Wheeler remarked. &quot;This is no more a plan to regulate the Internet than the First Amendment is a plan to regulate free speech.&quot;</p>
<p>
On Feb. 26, the FCC approved rules that prevent Internet and cellular providers from blocking, throttling or giving people special access to Web services in exchange for cash. Popular streaming services like Netflix could have been significantly affected if the conclusion went the other way, likely passing bandwidth/access costs onto consumers. The agency&#39;s decision entails one notably controversial element: It redesignates fixed and mobile broadband as a telecommunications operator and requires industry providers to be regulated as common carriers under Title II of the Communications Act, which was legislated in 1934.&nbsp;</p>
<p>
&quot;The basic question comes down to this,&quot; Wheeler told hundreds of Mobile World Congress attendees in Spain. &quot;If the Internet is the most powerful and pervasive platform in the history of the planet, can it exist without a referee?&quot;</p>
<p>
Wheeler and his like-minded FCC members clearly believe the answer is &quot;no.&quot; While the agency won&#39;t impose all the rules it could apply under Title II, the move generally calls for government oversight of the Internet, much like oversight of landline and wireless phone companies.&nbsp;</p>
<p>
The idea of dusting off Title II came to Wheeler last summer, he revealed, adding that T-Mobile and Sprint have already said they won&#39;t cut back on investing in innovation and infrastructure because of the measure. Moreover, municipal broadband providers like Chattanooga&#39;s EPB have already announced plans to expand further investment in the wake of the FCC&#39;s other ruling, simultaneous with the net neutrality rules, allowing them to expand.</p>
<p>
In the end, Wheeler said, the vote shows that most of the FCC&#39;s governing members believe Title 11 addresses business realities while keeping the Web cost-accessible for consumers.&nbsp;</p>
<p>
&quot;We spent a lot of effort in balancing that out,&quot; Wheeler said. &quot;And I am proud of what we came up with.&quot;</p>
<p>
Meanwhile, here&#39;s what the <a href="http://www.adweek.com/topic/mobile-world-congress" target="_blank">Mobile World Congress</a>&nbsp;looks like in the main hall before keynotes begin. &nbsp;</p>
<blockquote class="instagram-media" data-instgrm-captioned="" data-instgrm-version="4" style=" background:#FFF; border:0; border-radius:3px; box-shadow:0 0 1px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.5),0 1px 10px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.15); margin: 1px; max-width:658px; padding:0; width:99.375%; width:-webkit-calc(100% - 2px); width:calc(100% - 2px);">
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<a href="https://instagram.com/p/zxhBdhRA4K/" style=" color:#000; font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; font-style:normal; font-weight:normal; line-height:17px; text-decoration:none; word-wrap:break-word;" target="_top">The main stage at #MWC</a></p>
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A video posted by @adweekreports on <time datetime="2015-03-03T17:19:28+00:00" style=" font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; line-height:17px;">Mar 3, 2015 at 9:19am PST</time></p>
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<script async defer src="//platform.instagram.com/en_US/embeds.js"></script>TechnologyFCCFederal Communications CommissionJohn WheellerMobile World CongressMwcChristopher HeineTelecomTue, 03 Mar 2015 19:19:21 +0000163248 at http://www.adweek.comThe Winners and Losers in the FCC Ruling for Net Neutralityhttp://www.adweek.com/news/technology/winners-and-losers-todays-fcc-ruling-net-neutrality-163169
Sam Thielman<p>
<iframe frameborder="0" height="652" src="https://vine.co/v/O255VDQhBed/embed/simple" width="652"></iframe><script src="https://platform.vine.co/static/scripts/embed.js"></script></p>
<p>
In a historic decision today, the Federal Communications Commission voted 3-2 in favor of net neutrality by preventing broadband providers from throttling high-traffic services like Netflix.</p>
<p>
Specifically, the regulatory body voted to reclassify broadband Internet access as a Title II telecommunications service, requiring Internet providers to act &quot;in the public interest&quot; and stopping them from creating tiered services or slowing consumer access to specific sites.</p>
<p>
This decision will either preserve or destroy the Internet, depending on who you listen to.</p>
<p>
Mitchell Baker, executive chairwoman of Mozilla, was optimistic: &quot;This is an enormous step forward in helping us all protect the openness and innovation that has made the online life and the Internet so remarkable to date.&quot;</p>
<p>
Internet access will, in short, now be considered a public utility like gas, water and electricity.</p>
<p>
Comcast, which will probably have to radically realign its blueprint for the next few years, issued a fairly imperious statement asserting the exact opposite of Baker&#39;s assessment; that the openness of the Web thus far has entirely been a function of market freedom.</p>
<p>
Here&#39;s a quick recap of the winners and losers in today&#39;s FCC decision:</p>
<p>
<strong>WINNERS</strong></p>
<ul>
<li>
<strong>Minnesota Democrat Keith Ellison, seen dancing above</strong>.&nbsp;Ellison and Ra&uacute;l M. Grijalva (D-Arizona) co-wrote a letter to the FCC agitating for just this sort of strong regulation of the Web. Ellison, as you can see, is pleased.</li>
<li>
<strong>Netflix</strong>, which accounts for <a href="http://thenextweb.com/apps/2014/11/21/netflix-now-accounts-35-overall-us-internet-traffic/" target="_blank">an estimated 35 percent of U.S. Internet traffic.</a>&nbsp;The streaming service has been a leading voice in favor of net neutrality (the company makes its streaming speeds from cable providers available on its site so consumers can compare). After today&#39;s verdict, Netflix <a href="http://money.cnn.com/2015/02/26/media/netflix-net-neutrality/index.html?iid=HP_LN" target="_blank">released the following statement: </a>&quot;The net neutrality debate is about who picks winners and losers online: Internet service providers or consumers. Today, the FCC settled it: Consumers win.&quot; Netflix&#39;s stock rose about 1 percent today on the news.</li>
<li>
<strong>Mozilla</strong> and other online software creators. As executive Baker says, the ruling protects openness specifically. Cable owners, particularly network owners that also control content (as Comcast does) have a vested interest in seeing their own content delivered faster and with greater precision than their competitors (or, in the case of network owners who don&#39;t own content, customers who don&#39;t pay as much). Mozilla&#39;s interest is exclusively in creating a product that provides the best access to the internet&mdash;Firefox, its browser. With strong net neutrality regulations in place, it&#39;s much less likely that their product will vanish or find itself relegated to a tiny, uncomfortable niche.</li>
<li>
<strong>Rural residents&nbsp;and electric companies in the Southeast.</strong> Along with the net neutrality ruling, the FCC dealt a fairly harsh blow in favor of municipally owned broadband networks that have been stymied by potential legislation that&#39;s been&nbsp;<a href="http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/nov/20/fcc-weighs-laws-internet-telecoms" target="_blank">essentially blocked by cable companies</a>. The FCC&nbsp;declared the rules against expanding those companies void and said that those municipal broadband outfits (run by local power companies) would now be able to expand, meaning high-speed (extremely high speed, in some cases) Internet will be available soon to more Tennesseeans and North Carolinians. &quot;We applaud the FCC&#39;s decision to put control in the hands of communities at the local level, where it should be,&quot; said Danna Baily of Chattanooga&#39;s EPB. &quot;We look forward to serving our neighbors with 21st century communications services!&quot;</li>
<li>
<strong>Twitter</strong>, which has spoken often <a href="https://blog.twitter.com/2015/net-neutrality" target="_blank">in favor</a>&nbsp;of the new rules. &quot;We strongly support ensuring that such rules include prohibitions against blocking or throttling of sites and services as well as the paid prioritization of some traffic over others,&quot; the company said Monday.</li>
</ul>
<p>
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="367" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/I-UPyuW5j9o?rel=0" width="652"></iframe></p>
<p>
<strong>LOSERS</strong></p>
<ul>
<li>
<strong>Comcast</strong>, which has all but promised to wage a legal challenge against the decision and has made noises about scaling back investment in new technology that provides better service to consumers. &quot;&nbsp;We are disappointed the Commission chose this route, which is certain to lead to years of litigation and regulatory uncertainty and may greatly harm investment,&quot; the company said.</li>
<li>
<strong>Verizon, </strong>whose&nbsp;response catty but clever: the telecom issued a statement&nbsp;<a href="http://publicpolicy.verizon.com/blog/entry/fccs-throwback-thursday-move-imposes-1930s-rules-on-the-internet" target="_blank">in morse code on its official blog</a>, along with a handy translation in PDF form written smudgily as if on a typewriter and dated &quot;Feb. 26, 1934,&quot; a reference to the age of the language in the rule that now applies to them. The statement itself was rather serious: &quot;Today&#39;s decision by the FCC to encumber broadband Internet services&nbsp;with badly antiquated regulations is a radical step that presages a time&nbsp;of uncertainty for consumers, innovators and investors.&quot;&nbsp;</li>
<li>
<strong>AT&amp;T</strong>, which published <a href="http://www.attpublicpolicy.com/broadband-classification/thoughts-on-todays-vote/" target="_blank">a bylined blog post by Jim Cicconi,</a>&nbsp;who began his missive thusly: &quot;Perhaps I&#39;m betraying my years, but in Washington policy circles there has always been tension between those interested in solving problems and those who see policy disputes as a test of ideology.&quot;</li>
</ul>
TechnologyAt&tComcastKeith EllisonMozillaNet neutralitySam ThielmanTwitterVerizonThu, 26 Feb 2015 22:17:43 +0000163169 at http://www.adweek.comMore Top Media Publications Trust Programmatic For Premium Ad Inventoryhttp://www.adweek.com/news/technology/more-top-media-publications-trust-programmatic-premium-ad-inventory-162076
Michelle Castillo<img src="http://www.adweek.com/files/imagecache/node-detail/news_article/internet-surfer-hed-2014.jpg"> <p>
More top publishers are opting into programmatic ad networks to sell premium advertising.</p>
<p>
<a href="http://www.varickmm.com/" target="_blank">Varick Media Management</a> recently signed deals with Time Inc., News Corp., American Media Inc. and Wenner Media and will help them sell ad units that feature photography, videos and other types of media for their websites.</p>
<p>
&quot;There still is a large segment of the market that views <a href="http://www.adweek.com/news/technology/what-every-tech-savvy-marketer-should-know-about-future-programmatic-advertising-161546" target="_blank">programmatic</a> as the remnant stuff,&quot; said VMM vp of product strategy Jim Caruso. &quot;But it can be used as a holistic part of your strategy.&quot;</p>
<p>
Currently, real-time bidding programmatic rules the market, <a href="http://www.adweek.com/news/technology/7-advertising-trends-show-you-exactly-where-industry-headed-160803" target="_blank">making up $9.25 billion out of the $10 billion industry</a>. But, direct programmatic buying is taking over more of the space, growing 850 percent in 2014 to make up $800 million of the pie.</p>
<p>
One of the benefits of going programmatic is that publishers can access data that they wouldn&#39;t get via traditional ad buying, Caruso explained. VMM can combine its data with publisher first-party data to guarantee better hit rates for key audiences. Not only do people get the right ad at the right time, they see high impact creative that can be targeted across a media company&#39;s family of sites.</p>
<p>
&quot;I think that everyone should move to automation because it&#39;s more efficient,&quot; Caruso said.</p>
<p>
Patrick Dolan, evp and COO of the IAB, added that programmatic marketplaces aren&#39;t really about what type of ad content is being sold, but about the process. He isn&#39;t surprised by the growing number of media companies shifting to automated buying.</p>
<p>
&quot;Adoption of these transactions and strategies will continue to grow in the coming year and the (IAB) Programmatic Council will continue its focus in these areas,&quot; he said.</p>
<p>
Altimeter analyst Rebecca Lieb said that it was natural that publishers would want scalable and more efficient ways to purchase premium inventory, but cautioned that not everyone views programmatic as favorably as VMM does.</p>
<p>
&quot;As in the physical world, terming something premium implies there&#39;s a level of thought and manual attention that&#39;s almost antithetical to the concept of &#39;programmatic,&#39;&quot; she said. &quot;Definitions of these terms vary, of course, but there&#39;s no doubt that &#39;premium programmatic&#39; is a trend still in its very early stages of development.&quot;</p>
Advertising & BrandingTechnologyTelevisionAccountsAutomotiveDirectMichelle CastilloGreenHispanicInteractiveMarketingAmerican MediaAppleCableCommerceDataFacebookGamingGoogleMobileNews Corp.Out Of Homeprogrammatic adsprogrammatic advertisingprogrammatic dataProgrammatic TVSearchSocialTelecomTime Inc.TwitterVarick Media ManagementWenner MediaPackaged GoodsPoliticsRetailSportsCreativeAgencyBrand GeniusTue, 23 Dec 2014 21:12:40 +0000162076 at http://www.adweek.comWill Dish's AutoHop Die by Inches After the CBS Deal?http://www.adweek.com/news/television/will-dishs-autohop-die-inches-after-cbs-deal-161839
Sam Thielman<img src="http://www.adweek.com/files/imagecache/node-detail/news_article/dish-hopper-hed-2014.jpg"> <p>
Maybe the most interesting facet of CBS&#39; deal with Dish Network, finally reached on Saturday morning after CBS was blacked out on the company&#39;s systems Friday evening, is its exemption from AutoHop. You can&#39;t skip ads anymore on The Big Bang Theory, folks. On the bright side, CBS is no longer suing Dish over the technology.</p>
<p>
Dish&#39;s Hopper services have been a source of contention since the moment they debuted on the satellite TV provider. Almost as soon as Dish announced the product&mdash;which allows viewers to skip over ads&mdash;the industry was up in arms, citing damage to their&nbsp;ad revenue and a host of other complaints as Dish blithely ignored networks&#39; concerns in the name of customer service.</p>
<p>
The legal avenues for opposing the features weren&#39;t terribly fruitful. As networks including CBS and ABC sued Dish, the satellite company mounted a vigorous defense. &quot;ABC has no more right to make consumers watch commercials than The New York Times has to make readers view the pullout ads in the Sunday paper,&quot; its lawyers earlier this year told an appeals court, which ultimately agreed with them.</p>
<p>
The U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals voted unanimously in January to deny Fox&#39;s request to rehear its case, and CBS seemed poised to suffer a similar fate.</p>
<p>
But where the law fails, money is always a reasonable option to fall back on. Among other things, not being sued is a quality many CFOs prize, and it&#39;s one that was apparently on offer when CBS and Dish negotiated the contract. It&#39;s always difficult to tell how much these deals are worth in exact dollar figures. But assuming it&#39;s at the high end of what CBS usually commands from carriers&mdash;between $1.50 and $2.00 per subscriber per month, <a href="http://www.wsj.com/articles/cbs-plays-hardball-as-affiliate-fees-pile-up-1408578087" target="_blank">Wells Fargo analyst Marci Ryvicker told The Wall Street Journal</a>&nbsp;in August&mdash;the agreement would be worth about $336 million a year, likely&nbsp;over several years.</p>
<p>
&quot;The agreement will result in dismissal of all pending litigation between the two companies, including disputes over PrimeTime Anytime and AutoHop,&quot; wrote a CBS spokeswoman in a statement to press. &quot;As part of the accord, Dish&#39;s AutoHop commercial-skipping functionality will not be available for CBS Television Network-owned stations and affiliates during the C7 window.&quot;</p>
<p>
And that leaves a very interesting question open: Is AutoHop now less attractive as an incentive to consumers than as a bargaining chip in carriage negotiations? Dish, after all, is in the unenviable position of needing to show year-over-year profit increases in a mature market. And in a mature market, churn is also a very serious consideration. So if Dish can hold its suppliers over a barrel with tech that will damage their bottom lines&mdash;and has been court-tested multiple times&mdash;it can likely command even more cash with the promise of limiting that technology.</p>
<p>
Granted, that&#39;s not dissimilar to guaranteeing a new store owner&#39;s establishment won&#39;t &quot;accidentally&quot; catch on fire, but hey, <a href="http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/thr-esq/appeals-court-wont-rehear-foxs-673793" target="_blank">it&#39;s definitely legal</a>.</p>
TelevisionAbcAutoHopCableCbsDISH NetworkSam ThielmansatelliteTelecomTue, 09 Dec 2014 16:36:37 +0000161839 at http://www.adweek.comThis Japanese Cellphone Company's Shrimp Gun Will Make Your Dayhttp://www.adweek.com/adfreak/japanese-cell-phone-companys-shrimp-gun-will-make-your-day-161702
Sam Thielman<img src="http://www.adweek.com/files/imagecache/node-detail/news_article/japanese-shrimp-gun-hed-2014.jpg"> <p>
We came here from the Internet as fast as we could to tell you of a brand-new development in seafood technology: the fried shrimp gun. With flour, egg yolk, tempura flakes and a soup&ccedil;on of billowing fire, you can blast your shellfish craving into oblivion, apparently.&nbsp;</p>
<p>
The minute-long video appears to be an ad for Japanese cellphone company NTT DoCoMo, the biggest cell provider in the country. It has a few other shorts on its YouTube channel that are difficult for non-Japanese speakers to appreciate, but hooray for the shrimp gun.</p>
<p>
This is a mother-daughter team of shrimp-projectile experts, I guess? What&#39;s great about it is that the mom stops the daughter mid-fry to tell her there&#39;s obviously a better way to make shrimp tempura. And so begins the daughter&#39;s nightmare journey into invertebrate firearm cookery, complete with an excellent shot of the younger woman flinching as her mother calmly launches the shrimp toward a target across the room.</p>
<p>
Shrimp guns may be specific, but the experience is universal.</p>
<p>
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="367" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/lkaIoH6Um60" width="652"></iframe></p>
TechnologyDoCoMoJapanMothersshrimpTelecomMon, 01 Dec 2014 17:35:26 +0000161702 at http://www.adweek.comAT&T Has to Pay $105 Million for Overcharging Customershttp://www.adweek.com/news/technology/att-has-pay-105-million-overcharging-customers-160640
Sam Thielman<img src="http://www.adweek.com/files/imagecache/node-detail/news_article/tom-wheeler-hed2-2013_1.jpg"> <p>
Federal Communications Commission chairman Tom Wheeler held a press conference alongside colleagues from the Federal Trade Commission and the states attorneys general today to publicly reprimand AT&amp;T for &quot;cramming&quot;&mdash;adding fees that customers didn&#39;t authorize to phone bills&mdash;over the last eight years. It&#39;s a $105 million spanking, $80 million of which will go into a restitution fund for consumers. If &quot;cramming&quot; doesn&#39;t sound familiar to you, just think of the ringtones you could buy with a text message and have charged to your phone bill a few years ago; those are among the chief culprits. (And yes, the FTC and FCC have dealt with some of the third-party companies exploiting the loophole in SMS purchasing that caused the trouble.)</p>
<p>
FTC chairwoman Edith Ramirez spoke first. But Wheeler was harsher than his colleagues, dinging AT&amp;T for &quot;deceptively and unfairly billing for unauthorized third-party charges&quot; and saying that he looked forward to working more closely with the FTC. &quot;This is not the last time that we will act jointly,&quot; he said. &quot;There is no daylight between us.&quot;</p>
<p>
Oddly, the payout is characterized as a &quot;settlement,&quot; not a fine, presumably meaning AT&amp;T admits no wrongdoing in exchange for the $105 million. The panel assured reporters the outcome was good for consumers. &quot;AT&amp;T has agreed to change their business practices,&quot; Wheeler said.</p>
<p>
What will they do next? Well, probably more of the same. &quot;There are a lot of other carriers involved in this as well,&quot; Wheeler said. &quot;It&#39;s $20 million [a year] across all of the wireless providers in America, not just AT&amp;T, and stay tuned about those other wireless providers.&quot;</p>
<p>
In an emailed statement, AT&amp;T spokesman Marty Richter said that the company had discontinued the premium SMS service that allowed customers to make the disputed purchases. AT&amp;T is stressing the all-the-other-kids-did-it line, which, in fairness, appears to be true. &quot;In the past, our wireless customers could purchase services like ringtones from other companies using Premium Short Messaging Services (PSMS) and we would put those charges on their bills,&quot; Richter wrote. &quot;Other wireless carriers did the same.&quot;</p>
<p>
The FCC has been taking a harder line with telecommunications companies in the recent past. Rather than rubber-stamp the DirecTV/AT&amp;T or Comcast/Time Warner mergers, the agency is demanding copies of the carriage agreements the two cable operators have with content producers like 21st Century Fox, Viacom and Discovery.&nbsp;</p>
<p>
Wheeler has been <a href="http://www.adweek.com/news/television/how-will-fcc-s-tom-wheeler-get-past-his-image-problem-160569" target="_blank">subject to some serious criticism</a> in the recent past about his own perceived conflicts of interest. He&#39;s addressed those concerns in Q&amp;A sessions, but today&#39;s session gives us a clearer idea of how and whether he&#39;s willing to prove to the public that he&#39;s worthy of their trust.</p>
TechnologyAt&tComcastDirectvFCCTelecomSam ThielmanTom WheelerWed, 08 Oct 2014 16:55:50 +0000160640 at http://www.adweek.comRussian Models Troll Instagram With Super-Sexy Hashtags and Photos That Won't Loadhttp://www.adweek.com/adfreak/russian-models-troll-instagram-super-sexy-hashtags-and-photos-wont-load-158067
Alfred Maskeroni<p>
<img alt="" src="/files/phone-tap-652.gif" style="width: 652px; height: 369px;" /><br />
<br />
There&#39;s nothing worse than waiting for something to download on your phone, especially if you are a 14-year-old boy waiting for sexy models to appear in your Instagram feed.&nbsp;</p>
<p>
BBDO Moscow and Russian telecom MTS collaborated to baffle the crap out of followers of popular Instagram bloggers Victoria Bonya, Alena Vodonaeva and Anna Sedokova. In one of the troll-iest social media plays ever, these attractive Insta-celebrities posted photos captioned with the following hashtags: #sexy #oiled #myself #six #hot #naked #pumpedup #guys #red #latex #ass #withanimals #cat #bear #horse #experimenting #crazy #positions #wow #amazing #ohmygod.</p>
<p>
Except the photos never loaded. In fact, they were just images of the loading screen.</p>
<p>
Comments and engagement went through the roof as horny teens, animal lovers and basement dwellers freaked out upon realizing the images weren&#39;t going to load at all. The models followed up by posting ads promoting MTS&#39;s new 4G service and apologizing for the false expectations.&nbsp;</p>
<p>
What is unclear is how the users reacted to having their dreams shattered.<br />
<br />
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="367" mozallowfullscreen="" scrolling="no" src="//player.vimeo.com/video/95271705" webkitallowfullscreen="" width="652"></iframe><!--break--><br />
<br />
<strong>CREDITS</strong><br />
Agency: BBDO Russia<br />
Creative Director: Nikolay Megvelidze<br />
Creative Group Head, Director, Editor: Alexey Starodubov<br />
Group Account Director: Vladlena Obukhova<br />
Account Manager: Luiza Vasyutina<br />
Head of TV Production: Boris Anisonyan<br />
Producer: Valery Gorokhov<br />
Celebrities Producer: Kristina Malberg<br />
Managing Director: Ekaterina Komolova<br />
Art Director, Composer: Alexander Lubavin<br />
Digital Account Director: Elina Yaroslavskaya</p>
<p>
Client: Mobile Telesystems<br />
Director of Marketing Communications Department: Natalia Glagoleva<br />
Head of Marketing Communications Department: Maria Yakovleva<br />
Head of Marketing Communications Group: Yaroslav Smirnov<br />
Marketing Communications Managers: Anastasia Terekhova, Valery Kopytin</p>
<p>
Production: FreeParking<br />
Director of Photography: Alexander Polishuk<br />
Producer: Maria Yakushina<br />
Head of Production Group: Andrey Rubtsov</p>
Advertising & BrandingBbdoRussiaTelecomCreativeAgencyMon, 02 Jun 2014 17:08:48 +0000158067 at http://www.adweek.comInside BBDO's Harmonious New Brand Campaign for AT&Thttp://www.adweek.com/news/advertising-branding/inside-bbdos-harmonious-new-brand-campaign-att-157167
Tim Nudd<img src="http://www.adweek.com/files/imagecache/node-detail/news_article/att-sing-hed-2014.jpg"> <p>
<strong>IDEA</strong>: Wouldn&#39;t it be nice if everyone broke into song in a commercial and it felt somewhat natural and not like a cheesy Broadway show?</p>
<p>
AT&amp;T manages that feat in a 60-second launch spot for its latest brand campaign, introducing a shiny new tagline: &quot;Mobilizing your world.&quot; BBDO creatives Bill Heater and Marc Klein had been working for a year on a successor to the 4-year-old &quot;Rethink possible&quot; campaign, and came up with the idea that AT&amp;T technologies work so seamlessly with people in their modern lives that harmony is achieved, and the world sings.</p>
<p>
That cried out for an ad that delivered public displays of inflection (the vocal kind), and the pleasantly freewheeling &quot;Anthem&quot; spot obliges. It shows ordinary people singing a reworked version of &quot;Wouldn&#39;t It Be Nice&quot; by the Beach Boys to celebrate how AT&amp;T makes everything seamless and interoperable.</p>
<p>
&quot;We are clearly the leaders in this space, and we&#39;re not going to be quiet about it,&quot; said Sandra Howard, assistant vp of brand advertising at AT&amp;T. &quot;With this campaign as a starting point, we&#39;re showing that we&#39;re at the center of mobilization and are taking folks into the future.&quot;<br />
<br />
<img alt="" src="/files/adfreak/images/4/ATT-2.jpg" style="width: 652px; height: 367px;" /><br />
<br />
<strong>COPYWRITING</strong>: &quot;We must have written 400 versions of the script,&quot; said BBDO executive creative director Matt MacDonald. &quot;The question was, How do we make this story big and dramatic and visually different?&quot;</p>
<p>
They did it by showing lots of technologies in as many interesting locations as possible, and then rebuilding the lyrics to match the scenes. The spot shows regular people and businesspeople&mdash;moms, gamers, weathermen, birdwatchers, on and on&mdash;harnessing technology to connect to what&#39;s important to them.</p>
<p>
Both the people and the technology (many of the gadgets have cartoony faces) sing lines like: &quot;Wouldn&#39;t it be nice if we were older/Then we wouldn&#39;t have to wait so long/Wouldn&#39;t it be nice to live together/In the kind of world where we belong.&quot;</p>
<p>
A male voice at the end speaks two lines of copy: &quot;At AT&amp;T, we help people and things speak the same language. Because when everyone and everything works together, your world just sings.&quot; That&#39;s followed by the tagline, globe logo and att.com/sing.</p>
<p>
<strong>FILMING/ART DIRECTION</strong>: Director Noam Murro, known for his humanizing touch, shot the launch work all around Southern California over three and a half weeks.</p>
<p>
&quot;Anthem&quot; is visually warm and inviting. Giving the technology a face was tricky. &quot;How do you make it natural and not scary?&quot; said MacDonald. &quot;We settled on these characters that were very simple and very expressionistic.&quot;<br />
<br />
<img alt="" src="/files/adfreak/images/4/ATT-3.jpg" style="width: 652px; height: 367px;" /><br />
<br />
<strong>TALENT</strong>: The agency didn&#39;t want people who were perfect singers.</p>
<p>
&quot;We didn&#39;t want it to feel like Frozen,&quot; MacDonald said. &quot;In casting, we&#39;d have to tell them, &#39;No, no, no, don&#39;t make it too good. Pull it back a little bit. Sing like you&#39;re having a conversation, not like you&#39;re singing on stage.&#39; That unlocked so much nuance. They worried less about the singing and more about what&#39;s going on with their lives.&quot;</p>
<p>
The voiceover artist isn&#39;t a known voice, for the same reason. &quot;We wanted a regular-guy voice, not someone who would bring too much of their personality to bear.&quot;</p>
<p>
<strong>SOUND</strong>: &quot;Wouldn&#39;t It Be Nice&quot; was perfect. It&#39;s uplifting, lyrically apt and a melody everyone knows. (This allowed BBDO to make a second :60, &quot;Network,&quot; in which the melody is created through sound design of gadgets buzzing, with no words at all.)</p>
<p>
&quot;All the harmonies, the vocals. That rich depth, that wall of sound production. It gave us a lot to play with,&quot; MacDonald said.</p>
<p>
<strong>MEDIA</strong>: The two :60s are joined by <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WqgqEkk2guY" target="_blank">two</a> <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UA7odbjjGN0" target="_blank">:30s,</a> all shot at the same time as AT&amp;T&#39;s &quot;Network Guys&quot; ads. &quot;I had to go home,&quot; MacDonald said, &quot;just to remember what my kids looked like.&quot;</p>
<p>
<strong>THE SPOTS</strong>:</p>
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<p>
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="367" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/IAuWLcMWY5g?rel=0" width="652"></iframe></p>
<p>
<strong>CREDITS</strong><br />
Client: AT&amp;T<br />
Spots: &quot;Sing Anthem,&quot; &quot;Sing Network&quot;</p>
<p>
Agency: BBDO, New York<br />
Chief Creative Officer, Worldwide: David Lubars<br />
Chief Creative Officer, New York: Greg Hahn<br />
Executive Creative Director: Matt MacDonald<br />
Creative Director: Matt Vescovo<br />
Copywriter: Bill Heater<br />
Art Director: Marc Klein<br />
Group Executive Producer: Julie Collins<br />
Executive Producer: Diane Hill<br />
Assistant Producer: Sasha White<br />
Executive Music Producer: Melissa Chester<br />
Senior Account Director: Walker Teele<br />
Account Manager: Ashley Gill</p>
<p>
Production Company: Biscuit Filmworks<br />
Director: Noam Murro<br />
Director of Photography: Eric Schmidt</p>
<p>
Music House: Human<br />
Composer: Sloan Alexander</p>
<p>
Edit House: Rock Paper Scissors<br />
Editor: Stewart Reeves<br />
Assistant Editor: Luke Mcintosh</p>
<p>
Visual Effects House (Network): Spontaneous<br />
Visual Effect House (Anthem): Method</p>
Advertising & BrandingAt&tBbdoTelecomThe SpotCreativeTim NuddTue, 22 Apr 2014 12:06:35 +0000157167 at http://www.adweek.comAd of the Day: Vodafone Salutes Emergency Responders in Quietly Explosive New Adhttp://www.adweek.com/news/advertising-branding/ad-day-vodafone-salutes-emergency-responders-quietly-explosive-new-ad-156626
David Gianatasio<img src="http://www.adweek.com/files/imagecache/node-detail/news_article/vodafone-the-call-hed-2014.png"> <p>
Grey London takes an unconventional approach for Vodafone U.K., focusing on British emergency responders, more than three-quarters of whom, we&#39;re told, use the telecom&#39;s services.</p>
<p>
&quot;The Call,&quot; a riveting 60-second spot that feels almost like a PSA, eschews actors and CGI, using footage of real firefighters and burning cars. (It&#39;s not an actual crash, but a realistic scene staged by director Marcus Soderlund of Academy Films specifically for the commercial.) It features an understatedly effective voiceover by Grey creative director Vicki Maguire, who helped create the spot, playing the part of a first responder&#39;s wife.</p>
<p>
Her lines are simple but stirring: &quot;People say, &#39;But don&#39;t you worry?&#39; And I go, &#39;Well, no, it&#39;s just what they do. It&#39;s what they&#39;re trained to do. They&#39;re used to it. And so are you.&#39; But even after 27 years, you still want a call or a text. It&#39;s never, &#39;I love you. I&#39;m OK. I&#39;m safe.&#39; It&#39;s just, &#39;What&#39;s for dinner?&#39; &quot; She closes by gently chiding, &quot;Daft beggar,&quot; and her concern and devotion to her partner shine through.</p>
<p>
&quot;The repositioning of a network away from the handset and the fun of the Internet&mdash;dancing cats, animals on wheels, that kind of shizzle&mdash;to a strength of the network is a brave one,&quot; Maguire tells Adweek.</p>
<p>
Might some viewers take umbrage at this approach to selling phone service? &quot;It&#39;s an honest and transparent link,&quot; Maguire says. &quot;The idea and subsequent spot come off an independently substantiated fact: 77 percent of our emergency services use Vodafone. It&#39;s brave and bucks the category norm, but it comes from a truth. Why hide that?&quot;</p>
<p>
Maguire nailed the voiceover in a single take, basing her performance on men and women she&#39;s known whose partners have dangerous jobs. &quot;I&#39;ve always thought they are as heroic as their partners on the front line,&quot; she says. &quot;The VO is an amalgamation of those conversations.&quot;</p>
<p>
She adds, &quot;We fully expected to re-record&quot; the narration, but &quot;the more we worked on the ad, the more the team loved the voice. We showed it to real firemen, and they were like, &#39;Yep, that&#39;s the wife!&#39; I was chuffed!&quot;</p>
<p>
This is Grey London&#39;s first work for Vodafone U.K. since <a href="http://www.campaignlive.co.uk/news/article/1287210/vodafone-uk-adds-grey-london-ad-roster/?utm_source=dlvr.it&amp;utm_medium=twitter" target="_blank">winning a place on the U.K. account.</a> An earlier Grey spot for Vodafone, <a href="/node/149026">&quot;The Kiss,&quot;</a> which aired in some European markets, won two bronze Lions at Cannes last year.</p>
<p>
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="367" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/EK_wF0hAQEs?rel=0" width="652"></iframe></p>
<p>
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="367" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/U999bHpMy7g?rel=0" width="652"></iframe></p>
<p>
<strong>CREDITS</strong><br />
Client: Vodafone U.K.<br />
Brand Marketing and Communications Director: Daryl Fielding<br />
Spot: &quot;The Call&quot;<br />
Executive Creative Director: Nils Leonard<br />
Creative Directors: Vicki Maguire, Jonathan Marlow<br />
Agency Producers: Ange Eleini, Joe Arojojoye<br />
Creative Producer: Stephen Kessell<br />
Account Management: Natalie Graeme, Sophie Fredheim, Morwenna White-Thomson<br />
Planning: Leo Rayman, Rachel Woolley<br />
Media Agency: OMD<br />
Production Company: Academy<br />
Director: Marcus S&ouml;derlund<br />
Editor: Tom Lindsay<br />
Producer: Medb Riordan<br />
Director of Photography: Barry Ackroyd<br />
Music: Fragments of Self by Tom Hodge, Max Cooper<br />
Postproduction: Electric Theatre<br />
Audio Postproduction: 750</p>
Advertising & BrandingAd of The DayGreyTelecomU.K.VodafoneDavid GianatasioAgencyFri, 28 Mar 2014 18:54:13 +0000156626 at http://www.adweek.comRetail, Automotive Biggest Spenders in 2013http://www.adweek.com/news/advertising-branding/retail-automotive-biggest-spenders-2013-156524
Kristina Monllos<img src="http://www.adweek.com/files/imagecache/node-detail/news_article/unknown-1_23.jpeg"> <p>
The absence of the Summer Olympics and political spending in fall 2013 (compared to their presence in 3Q 2012) may have put a damper on <a href="http://www.adweek.com/news/television/broadcast-spend-drops-18-percent-418-billion-q3-154541" target="_blank">advertising expenditures,&nbsp;</a>but total ad revenue for the year was still up 0.9 percent to $140.2 billion, according to a new report from Kantar Media. Ad spending during the final quarter of the year rose 1.6 percent compared to the same time period in 2012.</p>
<p>
This is the fourth consecutive year that the market has registered a gain. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s a positive sign,&rdquo; said Jon Swallen, chief research officer at Kantar Media North America. &ldquo;Spending for the Olympics and the election added about $3 billion extra in 2012. Take that out of 2013 and that&rsquo;s like starting the year off in a hole. But despite that the market was able to have a year-over-year gain.&rdquo;</p>
<p>
Large and midsize advertisers represent 78 percent of all ad expenditures and both increased 3.3 percent. Small advertisers, which represent the remaining piece of the pie, spent 6.6 percent less than in 2012&mdash;Kantar pointed to the lack of resources and the slow-growing economy in explaining that drop.</p>
<p>
Packaged goods behemoth Procter &amp; Gamble maintained its title as the top-spending advertiser, at $3.17 billion&mdash;up 11.8 percent from 2012. P&amp;G&rsquo;s spending increases came mainly from its laundry, household cleaning and paper product brands, according to Kantar.</p>
<p>
General Motors dethroned AT&amp;T from its Q3 spot as the second largest advertiser, spending $1.794 billion&mdash;a 10 percent rise from &rsquo;12. GM shelled out most for Cadillac and the marketing relaunch of GMC&rsquo;s truck division.</p>
<p>
AT&amp;T ranked as the third largest spender for 2013, ponying up $1.793 billion&mdash;a 15.2 percent increase from &#39;12 while its competitor Verizon continued to reduce its outlay by 13.3 percent to $1.21 billion.</p>
<p>
Pfizer posted the largest growth rate, hiking its expenditures by 26.8 percent to $1.13 billion.</p>
<p>
Comcast, L&rsquo;Or&eacute;al, Toyota, Berkshire Hathaway and Time Warner rounded out the top 10 list. All told, the top 10 advertisers spent $15.9 billion during the year, up 6.6 percent from 2012.</p>
<p>
Retail was the leading category for ad expenditures during 2013, up 0.2 percent at $16 billion, according to Kantar data. Continuing its fourth consecutive year of recovery, ad spending in the automotive category ranked second, a 3.8 percent rise over 2012 to $15.2 billion.&nbsp;</p>
<p>
But it was telecom that had the biggest surge among the top 10 categories, increasing 8.2 percent for the year to $9.35 billion. The category&rsquo;s growth was propelled by well-funded smartphone model introductions from Nokia, Blackberry and Motorola.</p>
<p>
Local services, financial services, personal care products, food and candy, restaurants, direct response and insurance complete the top 10 ad categories for 2013. When combined, the categories spent $88.3 billion and spending grew 1.8 percent since 2012.</p>
<p>
According to the Kantar report, overall 2013 TV spending was down 0.1 percent. To put it in perspective, Swallen explained that television for the year was flat but cable TV offers a better barometer for how the medium is doing. Cable TV was healthy last year, up 7.3 percent, &quot;which shows that, even in a fragmented media economy, it&rsquo;s still the cornerstone of a lot of media spend plans,&rdquo; he added.</p>
<p>
Online spending, which doesn&rsquo;t include video or mobile ad formats, rose 15.7 percent for the year, while magazine media spending increased 1.8 percent. Newspaper media spending, however, was down 3.7 percent and radio media spending was also down 5.6 percent.&nbsp;</p>
Advertising & BrandingAutomotiveAt&tBerkshire HathawayBlackberryComcastKristina MonllosKantar MediaL'OréalMotorolaNokiaPfizerProcter & GambleTelecomTime WarnerToyotaVerizonPackaged GoodsRetailTue, 25 Mar 2014 20:18:14 +0000156524 at http://www.adweek.comApple and Comcast in Talks for Streaming Partnership?http://www.adweek.com/videowatch/apple-and-comcast-talks-streaming-partnership-156496
Michelle Castillo<img src="http://www.adweek.com/files/imagecache/node-detail/blogs/apple-tv-hed-2014.jpg"> <p>
Could Comcast users say goodbye to <a href="http://blog.fandor.com/2013/10/26/why-streaming-still-sucks/" target="_blank">fuzzy, buffering videos</a> and hello to fast, HD-quality content thanks to a rumored deal with Apple?&nbsp;</p>
<p>
The <a href="http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702303949704579457554242014552" target="_blank">Wall Street Journal</a>&nbsp;reported that unnamed sources say Apple and Comcast are negotiating a streaming television service deal that would give the cable giant&#39;s customers who own Apple set-top boxes preferential treatment on its network.&nbsp;</p>
<p>
When everyone in the network is trying to access too much online content simultaneously, the &quot;last mile&quot;&mdash;the final part of the cable wires that delivers service to the customers&mdash;tends to get congested.</p>
<p>
Internet service providers argue that content makers that absorb a lot of bandwith should be responsible for hogging the space. However, the other side is preaching <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Net_neutrality" target="_blank">net neutrality</a>, which hinges on the idea that all data online should be viewed on equal footing by Internet service providers and governments.&nbsp;</p>
<p>
<a href="http://www.adweek.com/news/technology/netflix-pays-bust-comcast-traffic-jam-155907" target="_blank">Netflix</a> famously agreed to pay Comcast in order to allow the streaming video company to directly connect to the cable giant&#39;s broadband network to prevent traffic jams in February. Then, just a month later, it&nbsp;<a href="http://www.adweek.com/news/technology/netflixs-hastings-slams-comcast-blog-calling-stronger-net-neutrality-156442" target="_blank">bashed Comcast</a> for being an &quot;an industry leader in supporting weak net neutrality.&quot;</p>
<p>
Apple had also been previously rumored to be talking with Time Warner Cable and other companies about getting access to live TV channels and video content for a new Apple TV device, <a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-02-12/apple-said-to-plan-new-set-top-box-amid-time-warner-cable-talks.html" target="_blank">Bloomberg</a> reported. <a href="http://www.adweek.com/news/television/8-things-time-warner-comcast-merger-will-do-155718" target="_blank">Comcast announced it was buying TWC</a> in mid-February for $45.2 billion. The merger <a href="http://www.adweek.com/news/television/time-comcast-cash-once-again-its-political-clout-155747" target="_blank">is still being reviewed</a> by the U.S. government.</p>
<p>
A <a href="http://www.adweek.com/news/technology/fcc-will-try-rewrite-open-internet-rules-155812" target="_blank">January court decision</a> ruled that the Federal Communications Commission does not have the authority to prevent Internet service providers and their ilk from blocking and discriminating against certain content providers. FCC chairman Tom Wheeler said that the government will <a href="http://www.adweek.com/news/technology/dc-court-shoots-down-fcc-net-neutrality-rules-154968" target="_blank">re-attempt to create guidelines</a> to help regulate the arena.</p>
TechnologyTelevisionAppleAppleApple TVCableMichelle CastilloNet neutralityTelecomVideoMon, 24 Mar 2014 19:43:06 +0000156496 at http://www.adweek.comAd of the Day: Will the World's Second-Oddest Family Be a Winner for Sprint?http://www.adweek.com/news/advertising-branding/ad-day-will-worlds-second-oddest-family-be-winner-sprint-156494
Tim Nudd<img src="http://www.adweek.com/files/imagecache/node-detail/news_article/frobinsons_hed_2014.png"> <p>
Dad is a hamster, voiced by Andrew Dice Clay. One son, played by new Saturday Night Live cast member Kyle Mooney, is supposed to be at college, except he&#39;s home most of the time. Another son is an eccentric drawn to scrapbooking and ventriloquism. The sole daughter speaks only in French. Mom is actually normal (i.e., exceptional by being unexceptional). The family is mostly white, except Grandpa is black. And let&#39;s not even get into their motley group of friends.</p>
<p>
Sprint&#39;s new ad family (or rather, &quot;framily&quot;), the Frobinsons, created by Figliulo&amp;Partners, are even more diverse and inclusive than your average Honey Maid family. They&#39;re a lot more peculiar, though&mdash;and no wonder. They&#39;re based partly on the <a href="/node/151804">multi-species Shitaro family</a> (in which Dad is a dog) from Japan&#39;s famously quirky yet beloved ads for Softbank, which acquired Sprint last year.</p>
<p>
Sprint breaks two launch spots (see both below) on Monday night. The new theme will be &quot;Happy Connecting.&quot; The question is, will U.S. viewers be as open to such self-conscious weirdness as the Japanese have been?</p>
<p>
&quot;The American family has changed. Our families today are more than our relatives, but also our friends, our neighbors&mdash;basically all the people we love,&quot; Sprint CMO Jeff Hallock says in a statement. &quot;So we created a product to give the new American family the flexibility and value they need from a wireless plan, brought to life through the Frobinsons. Our campaign acknowledges that we all have families that are unique with interesting personalities. It&#39;s a fun, lighthearted look at one group going through life as one big, happy Framily.&quot;</p>
<p>
&quot;The Frobinsons are a typical American family. They are a strange mix of individuals that care very deeply about each other and we wanted to create a group of characters that are familiar and very unique at the same time,&quot; adds Mark Figliulo, who opened Figliulo&amp;Partners last fall and signed Sprint as his first client after leaving TBWA\Chiat\Day in New York. &quot;We know that people are happiest when they are connected to the people and things they care about most. That&#39;s why everything we do ends on a beginning: Happy Connecting.&quot;</p>
<p>
The first two spots are basically trailers for what will be an episodic story over the next several months, featuring various celebrity cameos. It&#39;s certainly an ambitious approach. And while it seems obvious to say so, a lot will depend on the execution. If the spots are well written, the characters will come to life and the premise will quickly seem endearing; if not, the work could just as quickly be in trouble.</p>
<p>
But the client seems excited about it, and clearly has faith in Figliulo&mdash;or should we say, fraith in Frigliulo. It should be an interesting ride.</p>
<p>
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="367" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/n3PnPXTmGJQ?rel=0" width="652"></iframe></p>
<p>
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="367" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/2nF37tnDdu4?rel=0" width="652"></iframe></p>
<p>
<strong>CREDITS</strong><br />
Client: Sprint</p>
<p>
Brand Agency: Figliulo&amp;Partners<br />
Chief Creative Officer:&nbsp; Mark Figliulo<br />
Creative Directors: Jonathan Mackler, Joe Ventura<br />
Art Director: Jonathan Mackler, Craig Duffney<br />
Copywriter: Joe Ventura<br />
Account Executive(s): Judith Carr-Rodriguez, Dena Graham<br />
Planning: Caroline Krediet<br />
Head of Production: Robert Valdes<br />
Producer(s): Katherine Cheng<br />
Art Producer: Carly Chappell<br />
Print Production:&nbsp; Sarah Whinnem<br />
Business Affairs: Samantha Norvin</p>
<p>
Digital Agency: DigitasLBi<br />
Creative Directors: Lewis McVey<br />
Art Director: Keith Henneman, Christine Monahan<br />
Copywriter: David Shih, Nate Winter<br />
Project Manager(s):&nbsp; Courtney Klein, Matt Hill<br />
Account Executive(s): Davin Power, Alex Raymond, Caitlin Kelly, Cristin Jordan<br />
Planning:&nbsp; Mark Kirby<br />
Business Affairs:&nbsp; Dan Simonetti, Wilmien Blake<br />
Technology:&nbsp; Tony Bailey, Paul Nagorney, Nathan Dill, Angie Khumdee</p>
<p>
Media Agency: MediaVest<br />
Media Spend: TBC<br />
Media team: Terry Whitney, Tracy Reimers, Debbie Hutchings, Bridget Scanlan, Kandace Barker</p>
<p>
Photographer/Designer: Emily Shur with Giant Artists</p>
<p>
Production Company: Imperial Woodpecker<br />
Director: Stacy Wall<br />
Director of Photography: John Lynch<br />
Executive Producer:&nbsp; Charlie Cocuzza<br />
Line Producer: Betsy Oliver<br />
Editorial: Whitehouse Post<br />
Editors: Lisa Gunning, Alaster Jordan<br />
Assistant Editor: Josh James<br />
Executive Producer: Lauren Hertzberg<br />
Producer: Nick Crane</p>
<p>
Publishing:<br />
Music: Home Sweet Home/Motley Crew<br />
Composer: Tommy Lee and Nikki Sixx&nbsp;<br />
Audio Mix: Sound Lounge NY<br />
Home Sweet Home performed by Tatyana Richaud in &quot;Framily Portraits&quot;<br />
Home Sweet Home arrangement for &quot;Meet The Frobinsons Framily&quot;: Lee Wall</p>
<p>
Mixer: Tom Jucarone</p>
<p>
Talents:<br />
Dad&#39;s vo: Andrew Dice Clay<br />
Chuck: Kyle Mooney<br />
Mom: Judy Greer</p>
Advertising & BrandingAd of The DayFigliulo&PartnersSprintTelecomCreativeTim NuddMon, 24 Mar 2014 19:33:11 +0000156494 at http://www.adweek.comT-Mobile Teams With Tim Tebow in Super Bowl Surprisehttp://www.adweek.com/news/advertising-branding/t-mobile-teams-tim-tebow-super-bowl-surprise-155353
Garett Sloane<img src="http://www.adweek.com/files/imagecache/node-detail/news_article/t-mobile-tim-tebow-hed-2014.jpg"> <p>
T-Mobile, the self-proclaimed &quot;Uncarrier,&quot; is taking a contrarian approach to its Super Bowl marketing, too, waiting until the big weekend to reveal its commercials featuring Tim Tebow.</p>
<p>
The wireless carrier revealed two of its three spots on Friday morning after keeping them under wraps while many other advertisers, from Jaguar to Budweiser, were generating buzz on YouTube for much of this week.</p>
<p>
&ldquo;We&rsquo;re the &lsquo;Uncarrier.&rsquo; We don&rsquo;t play by the rules that everybody plays by,&rdquo; said Peter DeLuca, T-Mobile&rsquo;s svp of brands and advertising, explaining the company&rsquo;s decision to hold back any Super Bowl teasers until today.</p>
<p>
Some would call it a risky strategy, but then T-Mobile seems to have shunned most traditional paths of late. Case in point: the company got rid of two-year contracts, a staple of the industry that tethers customers to their phone companies. The no-contract policy is T-Mobile&rsquo;s hook into this year&rsquo;s Super Bowl campaign, starring Tim Tebow.</p>
<p>
The company has three in-game spots&mdash;in the second, third and fourth quarters&mdash;riffing off the fact the former NFL quarterback was without a pro contract last year. T-Mobile&rsquo;s longtime agency Publicis handled the third TV spot, but for the first time, the company teamed up with Butler, Shine, Stern &amp; Partners to develop the first two in-game commercials.</p>
<p>
&ldquo;T-Mobile is now teaming up with the ultimate free agent, Heisman Trophy winner Tim Tebow, for an unconventional, humorous Super Bowl TV commercial, showcasing the many benefits of contract freedom,&rdquo; the company said in a statement.</p>
<p>
The ads, each 30 seconds long and accompanied by one pre-kickoff spot, show Tebow in pursuit of oddball activities&mdash;being a rock star, delivering babies, speaking at the United Nations&mdash;all because he&rsquo;s not tied to a contract.</p>
<p>
The fourth quarter ad is not being pre-released, and won&rsquo;t be available online until the game is under way on Sunday.</p>
<p>
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="367" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/tyK2UG334C8?rel=0" width="652"></iframe></p>
<p>
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="367" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/ItbUe2QZ2CQ?rel=0" width="652"></iframe></p>
<p>
<strong>CREDITS</strong><br />
Client: T-Mobile USA<br />
Chief Marketing Officer: Mike Sievert<br />
Senior Vice President, Brand and Advertising: Peter DeLuca<br />
Vice President, Marketing: Trish Cox<br />
<br />
Agency: Butler, Shine, Stern &amp; Partners<br />
Executive Creative Director: John Butler<br />
Associate Creative Directors: Mark Krajan, Chris Toffoli<br />
Managing Director: Patrick Kiss<br />
Director of Broadcast Production: Adrienne Cummins<br />
Agency Producer: Frank Brooks<br />
Account Director: Lindsay Grant<br />
Account Supervisor: Samantha Bartelloni<br />
<br />
Production Company: Imperial Woodpecker<br />
Director: Stacy Wall<br />
Executive Producer: Charlie Cocuzza<br />
Producer: Anita Wetterstedt<br />
Editorial: Arcade Edit<br />
Visual Effects: Framestore<br />
Sound Design: Barking Owl<br />
Music: Beacon Street<br />
<br />
Talent Negotiation: CAA and PMK*BNC</p>
Advertising & BrandingButler, Shine, Stern & PartnersSuper BowlT-mobileTelecomCreativeGarett SloaneFri, 31 Jan 2014 13:35:33 +0000155353 at http://www.adweek.comIt's Finally Real: An iPhone Case That Doubles as a Stun Gunhttp://www.adweek.com/adfreak/its-finally-real-iphone-case-doubles-stun-gun-154966
T.L. Stanley<img src="http://www.adweek.com/files/imagecache/node-detail/blogs/yellow-jacket-stun-phone-hed-2014.jpg"> <p>
If you can dream it, someone can steal it.</p>
<p>
That could be the moral of the story of Stun Fone, a fictitious attachment that turned your smartphone into a stun gun, <a href="http://www.brandfreak.com/2010/11/the-stunfone-isnt-real-but-there-appears-to-be-a-market-for-it.html" target="_blank">devised a few years back</a> by Los Angeles ad agency and production studio Stun Creative. A video demo of this 90,000-volt fake gadget went viral (the original clip was pulled off YouTube, but a copy is posted below), racked up millions of tweets and won an &quot;experimental and weird&quot; Webby honor. Sadistic folks all over the world clamored for one.</p>
<p>
Well, the wait&#39;s over, and <a href="http://www.yellowjacketcase.com/" target="_blank">the real version,</a> made by a company called Yellow Jacket, is significantly more muscular than the one cooked up by Stun Creative&#39;s Brad Roth and Mark Feldstein as a quirky promotion for their business. Yellow Jacket will sell you a detachable stun-gun case for the iPhone 5 that can shoot 650,000 volts of electricity into a would-be predator (or unfortunate butt-dialer?) for just $149. Bonus: It doubles as a battery charger and makes a noise that&#39;s &quot;throaty and intimidating,&quot; <a href="http://ces.cnet.com/8301-35294_1-57616891/zap-yellow-jacket-stun-gun-case-powers-up-for-iphone-5/" target="_blank">according to CNET.</a></p>
<p>
The device, launched at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, will be available next month, complete with safety switches so you don&#39;t fry your ears off. No word on revenue splits or a licensing fee to the original &quot;creators,&quot; although they don&#39;t seem overly bothered by the new product. In fact, it was Stun Creative&#39;s PR team that pointed us to it.</p>
<p>
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="367" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/HblqjMpgJB8?rel=0" width="652"></iframe></p>
Advertising & BrandingNew ProductsStun CreativeTelecomYellow JacketTue, 14 Jan 2014 16:16:00 +0000154966 at http://www.adweek.com